Gwynedd bus firm Express Motors up before traffic commissioner

Express Motors is up before the Traffic Commissioner over late running and other complaints

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A bus operator was hauled up before traffic bosses after numerous complaints.

One complaint about Penygroes based Express Motors came from a lady whose son was left waiting at a remote bus stop for nearly 30 minutes and was late to school, the hearing at Llandudno Junction heard.

There were also complaints an Express Bus driver had not stopped for a red traffic light and another had overtaken another vehicle in an inappropriate spot on the A470.

A monitoring exercise carried out by the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) found one in five buses were either late of too early.

Deputy Traffic Commissioner Jim Astle said the hearing was being held against a background of previous monitoring and public inquiries at the company in recent years which had resulted in warnings and fines.

He heard 19 services on four routes had been monitored in a three week period in August.

DVSA officer Nia Lloyd said all of the services had operated but four of them were “non-compliant” with a requirement to run within a six minute window of time.

She said a service more than a minute early and five minutes late was non-compliant.

Three of the four routes monitored were from Llanberis to Bangor and Caernarfon. The fourth was a Snowdon Sherpa service from Caernarfon to Beddgelert.

Ms Lloyd said one service was 10 minutes late while the other two were nine and seven minutes late. One bus was five minutes early at Brynrefail near Llanberis.

But James Backhouse, solicitor for Eric Wyn Jones, owner of Express Motors, said another monitoring exercise had been carried out by Bus Users Cymru, a watchdog body. He said this had been for a longer period of time and could have been more extensive.

“A letter from the officer to the bus company suggests the result is favourable,” he said.

Details of this investigation had not been disclosed to the DVSA or the Traffic Commissioners office he said.

Mr Backhouse asked Ms Lloyd: “Is it fair a non-compliance rate of this nature is not representative for an operation the size of Express Motors?”

She replied: “Yes.”

He asked the commissioner to adjourn the hearing until the Bus Users Cymru data was available for consideration.

Allowing an adjournment Mr Astle said he would review the data and may conclude the company should not be subject to any disciplinary measures.

The hearing also heard about irregularities about licence disks carried on vehicles. These were discovered during a search by DVSA officers called in to assist North Wales Police in an investigation after allegations of fraud.

Mr Backhouse said he was unhappy about discussing these matters in public as it might prejudice the ongoing police investigation.